The Andromeda Galaxy is each a spectacular deep-sky object — and an necessary one within the historical past of astrophysics.
Credit score: Patrick Cosgrove
The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) makes for an amazing late summer season goal, as a naked-eye object or with binoculars or a telescope. It’s the closest main galaxy to us at 2.5 million light-years. It’s additionally probably the most distant factor that most individuals can see with their bare eyes alone! (In the fitting circumstances, some individuals can see M33, the Triangulum Galaxy).
Seen with a moderate-sized telescope, M31 will reveal a vivid condensed hub, well-defined darkish lanes, and quite a few satellite galaxies. M32 and M110 are in the identical discipline, however don’t neglect about NGC 147 and NGC 185 in Cassiopeia, the following constellation over. The truth that they’re 7° away — roughly 14 occasions the diameter of the Full Moon — and nonetheless gravitationally sure to M31 is a dramatic indication of simply how shut Andromeda is, and the way massive it looms in our sky.
In reality, the Milky Way and Andromeda are moving toward each other — and in about 4 billion years, the two galaxies will meet in a collision that can warp their spiral constructions and lightweight them up with bursts of star formation. However by that point, if there’s any life round to see this spectacular smash-up, it gained’t be on Earth. We’ve got solely a couple of billion years earlier than the Sun’s evolution renders Earth uninhabitable. So get on the market and see Andromeda whilst you can!
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